Princess of Hope:

Hunter has stormed in his garage room as he threw cation towards those who tried to tell him to get over his brother's death.

"Do they think they really know ME?" Hunter asked in rage as he threw his guitar down on his bed. "Well they don't know me."

He pulled out his rubber band to let his hair down before retying it into a neater ponytail. As he sat down on his bed, he noticed a gold cell phone in his bedroom. Looks like, Kelly is trying to comfort me again. I can always count on her when I'm down.

Hunter pulled on his backpack and he left the garage while he was listening to his CD player. James why did it have to be you to die? You were more happier than I was. You should be living right now.

"What the..." Before hunter finished the cell phone began to glow and he disappered in the light.

Shae Rovana:

Derek strummed his electric guitar thoughtfully. It was after band practice and his friend, Ray, was picking him up in an hour for a homecooked meal. It'd be a nice change after eating out and wasting his hard earned pocket money. Suddenly his electric guitar started acting haywire. It started playing by itself in a tune Derek had never heard before. An odd oval thing popped of out the guitar. It was neon green and had odd dots on it. Suddenly the room started spinning and then the whole world went black.

Tempest Rider:

Shintaro yawned as the computer at School took a tediously long time to load.

"Kajitana! What are you doing?!" Sensei Senji glared at Shintaro. The youth glared back.

"The computer is loading Sensei Senji-San" Shintaro spat. Sensei Senji growled.

"I have had it up to HERE with you" Senji placed a hand at his cheek to illustrate.

"Se-" Shintaro was cut off as binary code swirled round the computer screen. it spun out in a tornado and sucked Shintaro in, he was sliding along a swirl of numbers and finally into a grassy landscape. Shintaro looked around sullenly before a voice alerted him.

"Did you know that you aren't real?"

Firesong1226:

The phone rang. Keiara jumped, surprised by the sound. She picked up her cell phone to see who it was. As she expected, the call was from her friend, Marah, who, Kei guessed, wanted to talk about her new boyfriend. She threw the phone under her bead, not caring whether it broke; her parents would buy her a new one, they always did. She turned on her computer to check her mail. There was an email from Marah, one from Nahoi, a boy she despised, and an acceptance letter from an online sci-fi club. There was also one from an unknown sender. Kei opened the email, forgetting all about her mother's warning that unknown emails could hold viruses. It was a picture of an odd device that seemed like a combination of a digital watch or a communicator from some futuristic sci-fi movie. On the screen of the device was a set of quickly movie pictures. Kei leaned closer to the screen to see that the pictures were of landscapes, some kids, and strange looking creatures. She touched the screen and it went black and something dropped into her hand. It was the device on the screen. Her blue eyes widened and the adjusted the red bandana that was placed on her dark hair; she always did this when she was nervous. She held it up, trying to get a closer look. Suddenly, the computer screen lit up with bright lights. Kei looked up and was sucked into the screen. And everything faded into darkness.

Wind Song:

"What should shirt should I wear? The blue or the red?"

"The blue definitely," Hovana replied to her friend, Meiana.

"I'm so exited that he asked me out!" Meiana exclaimed. "I never-" She was cut off as the phone went dead.

"That's weird," Vana thought. Just then, she heard her computer connect to the Internet and a site popped up. There was a picture of a strange device that looked sorta like a stopwatch. Above the picture was written, "Click the picture." Vana hesitated before clicking the image. Suddenly, the picture disappeared and she felt something drop into her hand. It was the odd device. "How did-" but before she could finish, she was lifted from her chair and sucked into the computer. And everything faded into darkness.

Mystic Beauty:

Akiko headed home from the usual route to school until she saw a Gameboy in the white shade that she promised her brother to buy when he turned 11.

"Oh great, I'm gonna be late for Kendo again." Akiko said as she remembered what her Sensei and her father told her about tardiness. "Its bad enough that I'm late for practice but Dad will have a fit.

She checked her pager. It was acting wierd on her as she disappaeared into the 1s and 0s.

Jen:

Jennifer was watching t.v. "Why is there never something good on the t.v.?" She said. "It's always so boring!"

"Hey! Why do you bite me stupid cat!" She said angry at her cat. The cat runs to Jennifer's computer. Jennifer walks to her computer. "What's wrong, that is just a stupid link!" Her cat bites her again. "Ok ok!" Jennifer pushes with the mouse on the link. Her cat runs away and Jennifer be taking in another world...

Dark Storm:

Nahoi played a few cords on his new electric guitar. He couldn't believe his mother got it for him. He opened his song book and began playing "The Anthem," his favorite Good Charlotte song. He smiled, pleased with himself; it sounded much better on electric guitar. Suddenly, something fell out of the guitar. It looked like a digital watch. He put down his guitar to pick up the strange orange device. Suddenly, he was sucked into the guitar and everything faded to black.

Misty Raven:

"Hey Jamie-san." Sadako called out. "Great job with your singing."

Jamie got out of her chorus class back in her school.

"Jamie." Sensei Amori called out as he faced the happy girl.

"Yes Sensei." Jamie responded. "Ooops, almost left my cell phone again."

"Try not to let this happen." Sensei told her.

She headed on home to her house when her cell phone started to act all wierd on her.

"Oh well!" Jamie said as the cell phone turned into a ice pink digithingy with white buttons.

Five minutes later she disappeared from the school.

Ice Song:

"I have a really cool idea for a new song."

"Let's hear it."

Kaylee nodded and began strumming a few cords on her guitar. She added the song, singing it beautifully. The whole song had an air of sadness but it was good none the less. "Like it?" Kaylee asked when it was done.

"Yeah," her friend, Sarah replied. "Have you told Aidan about it yet?" she asked, speaking about the third member in their band.

"Not yet. I wanted to see how you liked it first."

"Why don't you email her the lyrics?"

"Sure but let me put away my guitar," Kaylee replied.

"Sure."

Kaylee picked up the electric guitar but something dropped out of it. "What's this?" she asked. It looked like a watch. She put the guitar down on her bed and imediantly was sucked into the small screen. Everything faded into darkness.

Thunder Hawk:

Qusay walked around Cairo with his friends Daniel and Rabia. His friends like to be around him.

"Qusay!" Rabia asked. "Is your family coming up to my house soon?"

"Maybe later on." Qusay said as he smiled. "I gotta do something first."

He called on his cell phone only to find it going haywire on him. "What's Allah thinking?" he muttered as the light from the cell phone zapped him in.

Misty Raven:

Blair saw her best friend Rachel strum her guitar as Yolie placed her sicks in her jean pocket and Kylie put her electric guitar down.

"Good practice wasn't it," Rachel said.

Blair nodded her head as the three girls prepared to leave. Yolie turned to her friend her blonde hair swaying. "You coming over to my house for dinner, right?" Yolie asked.

"My family and I will be there," Blair agreed.

She saw the three girls leave for home and was prepared to do the same thing until the guitar started playing by itself. She thought it was the wing and checked on it until a weird looking watch-like digivice popped out of guitar. Blair made a grab for it and then she disappeared into the light.

Ariah:

Ariah sat back against one of his favorite palm trees. He listened to the rustling of the distant leaves as a warm summer breeze swept across the island. He shut his eyes, as the subtle noises of the night seemed to sing him almost to sleep like a lullaby. Something in the boy's backpack beeped. Ariah had guessed that it was just his laptop. He lifted the small cordless computer into his lap as he opened it up. A bright light emerged from the screen as he shaded his eyes. Ariah squinted as he looked up to the darkened sky. He still had a massive headache that only seemed to swell. Confused, he looked around. Everything was foreign to him now, and he had wondered where he was. He pulled out his pocket compass, but the device didn’t seem to work. Actually, none of the gadgets Ariah held seemed to be functional.

Kanoi:

"Ruddy morons." I said to myself as the two girls chatted on with their upcoming dance. My twin brother, Hayden is the only one I trust with my life and everyone else is ignored. Currently I'm the Digimon Queen, my hometown of Olongapo and won enough money for me and Hayden to survive. The boys who challenged me to the match always lost to me and had to surrender their money to me.

"We're better than this." Hayden said, pulling out a cell phone. "Besides, I need you to watch this, while I buy some more Palabok." I agreed and held onto the cellphone until it started to act haywire to me. I tossed it aside before I blacked out and disappeared into the navy light.

Thunder Hawk:

I looked at Marah while we're on the street of our hometown. I left home with my twin because I figure she may need me before she got hurt. Anyway I was buying some palabok before I saw someone playing some dance, I fure I try it out since Marah did give me money to buy food. When I tried the game, I vanished right away.

Amethyst Wind:

Hasaki wiped the sweat from his brow. His kendo practice had just ended, lasting longer than usual and leaving his muscles screaming. “Nice job today. Too bad I beat you as always.”

The boy spun around to come face to face with the smirking Akairo. His bit his lip, willing himself not to lose his temper yet trying to come up with some witty comeback at the same time. He forced a smile and said nothing. He grabbed his bag and headed outside. The cool breeze felt good, a refreshing break from the warm room inside. He sighed contentedly and starting walking home, ignoring his body’s protests. He heard something ring from inside his bag. “Probably Mom wondering why I’m late.” He opened his bag, searching for his phone. “Hallo?”

“Are you ready to learn your destiny?”

“Excuse me?” Hasaki replied, frowning slightly.

“Your fate awaits you.”

The boy was about to reply when his phone made a weird sound much like a dial up tone. He cursed under his breath then gasped. His cell phone had morphed into a weird blue device. “What the heck is going on?” Before anyone could reply, he was drawn into the screen and everything faded to black.

Jesusfreake101:

Grace layed on her couch. Her body was in a lazy position as she tapped the buttons on her playstation. She was waiting for Halo to load... again. Her eyes were sagging from being up way too late.  but she didn't care. she was having a lot of fun. Her eyes store into the frozen loading seen as she thought to herself.

Time seemed to have frozen for a second. "everything takes ten times longer when you need sleep!" the girl thought out loud. "What's going on?" she asked herself, sure that it had been past five finutes since she turned the game on.

Then a screen seemed to have come from nowhere and pulled the teenager in.

Kanoi:

Serenity headed home with her friend Miaka and Anna. They both have been her best friends since childhood and have more of a tendecy to watch out for her.

"I'll call you when we get home, Serenity." Anna said. "We need to get home since it my brother's birthday."

"Wish him a happy birthday for me." she said, walking inside her house.

She looked at her older brother, Mike and smiled at him. She always had gotten along with older brother and her parents.

"Serenity." Mike said, popping in his prepared pepperoni pizza. "Mom and Dad will be home late so we're fending for ourselves."

"I know that." Serenity said. "I'm just going to watch some T.V. and hope it's something good. Let me know when the pizza is done."

She turned on the t.v. She was glad she was on time to watch her favorite anime show Yu-Gi-Oh. But there's something different about the scene. It has monsters and no duelist.

"What is going on?" Serenity said, dissappearing into the light.

Amethyst Wind:

"Hyo-kun!" a high-pitched, feminine voice called.

"Ignore her," the other boy hissed at Hyosuke.

"But that would be rude," the boy replied, ignoring Daisetsu rolling his eyes. "Hello, Kyoko-san."

She girl giggled, flipping her blonde hair. "You don't have to sound so formal, silly," she gushed. She didn't notice Daisetsu gagging behind Hyosuke, her dark eyed gaze locked on his friend. "So, are you going to the dance of Friday?"

"I'm-"

Daisetsu cut him off, glaring at his friend. "Actually, we have other plans. I'm introducing him to one of my friends. A GIRL friend."

"That's not-"

Hyosuke was cut off again by a swift kick to the shin. "Sorry, Hoshimoto. Now we have to go..."

"Bye Hyo-kun," the girl waved as Daisetsu steered the boy away

"Arakawa, what were you thinking? That girl is insane!" he added once out of earshot.

"She's just different, that's all," Hyosuke defended.

"Oh yeah. And I'm going to rule the world," Daisetsu sneered, rolling his eyes. "You need to get rid of her. A restraining order might work...."

"I don't want to hurt her feelings!" Hyosuke objected. "Can we just go get my laptop?" he had left it at his friend's house the previous day and he was anxious to get it back. And to change the subject.

"Whatever floats your boat, Arakawa."

A minute later, they were standing in Daisetsu's room, the boy reaching into the closet for the large, black case. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Hyosuke sank onto the boy's bed, turning on his laptop. "Dai, what's this?"

"Hmmm?" he glanced over his friend's shoulder, reading the message that had just popped up.

"You are the chosen one, Arakawa Hyosuke."

"Is this some kind of a joke?"

The message soon changed, this time saying "that fate of the world lies in your hands."

Then "Do you wish to accept your fate?"

"Click yes," Daisetsu added, curious.

"Ok...." Click. A small device flew out of the screen but before the boy had a chance to study it, everything faded to black.

Kaze_Night:

Blake entered his room to play Dead or Alive 3 on his XBOX as his usual favorite character, Kasumi. He always beaten the game as her before.

"I always establish a record," he said, pleased that his score remained on the top list. "But I also wish I wasn't using my psychic powers to win all the time."

He then turned on his XBOX to start playing again until he saw something wierd on the screen. Before Blake had a chance to inspect it, he disappeared into the light.

Thunder_Song:

Masami headed towards the entrance of the arcade with Hitomi. He can't say no when it comes to his identical twin sister unlike anyone else.

"You'll enjoy it," she said as they entered the arcade.

"Fine, fine." Masami laughed.

There was nothing new about the games except for one that caught his grey eyes. Since there was no one in line for the game, it wouldn't hurt him to play it. As soon as he was seated, he began enjoying himself until he felt a strange light engulf him.

"What in the..." he said as he got sucked in and disappeared.

AndNorth14:

North trudged home from his job at the corner market late one afternoon during the pouring rain. It seemed to always pour when North was feeling alone, and today had been one of those days. He was in no rush to get home because his mother would not be there; she was never there any more, she was always working. He had gotten so used to caring for himself and the accompanying loneliness. He had gotten so tired of it.

He kicked an empty soda can along as he walked down the street towards his apartment. There was no one else to worry about on the street because no one in their right mind would be on the street in this weather. Almost as if responding to his internal thoughts, a giant streak of lightning shot across the sky and was soon followed by an enormous clap of thunder. North took it as a sign to get inside as soon as possible. He ran for his building's door and opened it quickly to slide inside.

He walked the steep stairs and let himself into his apartment quietly, still dripping water all over. He dropped his backpack on the floor and headed for his tiny room at the end of the hall. He didn't bother to change his clothes and just threw himself down on his bed. Lightning flashed brightly outside his window, lighting up his entire room. He rolled over and faced the ceiling, watching the shadows dance across it with every flicker of light. He recalled the events of his day in his head. He had been late to school; he had forgotten his homework; he had embarrassed himself in front of everyone when he fell down the stairs; he had been late to work. He slammed his fist down on to his mattress.

"Why is my life like this?" he shouted. "Why am I alone all of the time? Is this how it's always going to be? I don't want this. I want true friends, I want true love, I want everything to be different!"

Lightning flashed again, and the thunder came instantly, louder than before. North sat up and reached for the television. He turned it on along with his game console as he slid down onto the floor.

"This is how my life should be," he said. "It should be in a world full of magic and wonder with tales of love and heroism. This is what I want it to be. Then it would be different."

The title of the game screen appeared in front of him. It was odd, this was a game he had never seen before.

"Hmm...where did this come from? I don't remember buying this. Maybe mom got it for me and left it here," he wondered aloud. "Yeah, that must be it."

North moved the cursor to select, "New Game." The screen blinked and then the question "Are you sure?" appeared in big bold lettering. North hesitated for a moment and then moved the cursor for "Yes." As he pressed start, lightning struck again and a giant white flash filled his room.

As North sat in awe of the brilliant light, his room began to disappear around him. He found himself falling for what seemed like forever until he hit the ground hard, which knocked him out. He awoke several hours later in a thick forest and rose to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head slowly as he looked around slowly, not recognizing anything.

"Man, does my head hurt," he said quietly. "Jeez...where the hell am I?"

He was about to venture into the forest when he noticed something glimmering softly at his feet. He bent down and picked it up. The metal device was a bold orange color which matched his shirt exactly.

"Hmm...I wonder who this belongs to."

He placed the device on his belt and began to walk the path through the forest, and for the first time in a while, North smiled. Things were finally different.

Malathyne:

If there was anything about nature that Abukara Yoshimitsu loved, it was the night sky at midnight. Endless star-studded velvet sky, snowy moon hanging so high above it all... Beautiful and enthralling. Yoshimitsu was convinced that there was nothing -- /nothing/ -- as calming and alluring as watching a meteor shower and trying to make a wish as a star fell.

Too bad the stars were invisible in Tokyo.

Ah, Tokyo. The capital of Japan. All the city lights hid the stars, covered them up. All you could see was the moon. Yoshimitsu sighed, longing for the little cabin that their parents used to own in the wild. Used to own not because they sold it -- used to own because Yoshimitsu's mother died in a car wreck, and his father disappeared not long afterwards. So, Yoshimitsu and his younger siblings, Kato and Amika, were shipped off to their current guardians, their aunt and uncle Sana and Akito Tobayashi, who lived not in Osaka, not in the wilderness, but in Tokyo.

"'MITSUUUUUU!"

The teenager in question nearly toppled off the balcony in surprise. "Eeyaa!" he yelped, catching himself on the balcony rail. He mushroom sighed and turned around.

"What now?"

"The printer broke!" Aunt Sana whined, followed by Uncle Akito calling, "Sana blew it up."

"I did not!"

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did too. You dumped coffee all over it."

"I was aiming for you, but you moved, and the printer blew up!"

Sighing again, 'Mitsu headed inside as his aunt and uncle argued.

The Tobayashi apartment was neat and sparkly. Yes, sparkly, not sparkling -- Aunt Sana was quite fond of shiny things, like mirrors and coins and plastics. As our hero turned the bend and into the family room, he found the computer corner a mess. Well, the printer was a mess. Coffee stained the paper, sparks of electricity zipped around every once and a while, and smoke slowly drifted from the printer and around the room.

Yoshimitsu sweatdropped, and waved his hands. "Move, c'mon, move outta the way, I can't get to the prin'er if you're right there, /move/ -- "

Still waving his aunt and uncle aside with one hand, 'Mitsu ran his other hand through his already messy blonde- and brunette-highlighted black hair. This was normal for him -- fixing whatever blew up, or broke, or cracked in result of another mock-fight between the adults. Of course, whatever he fixed stayed fixed -- as long as coffee wasn't dumped all over it.

"We'll go make some hot chocolate," Aunt Sana quipped energetically, dragging Uncle Akito into the kitchen, who yelped,

"We'll wha?"

'Mitsu shook his head exasperatedly, but smiled all the same as he turned to look at the printer. It smoked.

"You just get beat up all the time, don't you?" 'Mitsu asked it, glancing around the room for paper towels. First thing first -- it has to be clean before he could figure out what was broke.

The printer whirred.

'Mitsu stared at it.

The printer sparked.

'Mitsu shrugged, and returned to looking for the paper towels. He located a roll, and he was just reaching to grab it when --

The printer beeped.

Hand still outstretched, 'Mitsu stared at it, brow furrowed.

And 'Mitsu could've /sworn/ on his mother's grave that the printer giggled.

"...Oooookay," Yoshimitsu commented, snagging the paper towel roll and tearing off several sheets. "I'll just. Um. Ignore that. Yeeeaah, I'll do that..."

And so, he proceeded to wipe the printer clean of cooling coffee. He crumpled up the paper towels and was throwing away the wad as the printer shot black ink out and nailed him right in the forehead.

"OW!"

The printer giggled madly. 'Mitsu scowled, smacked it -- and then the printer spat something else at him, this time hitting him square on the nose.

"YOWCH!"

The... /thing/ that flew out of the printer fell into 'Mitsu's open hand, onto the paper towels. The fourteen-year-old stared at his hand, at the square object silhouetted against the flower-patterned paper towel. It was white tinted with spring green, and had a black square in its center. There were two dark green buttons on the right side of the screen and one button on the left side.

"What the -- "

Before he could finish, the world around him distorted computer-like and white noise crackled and filled his ears. 'Mitsu dropped the paper towel and the odd device as he clamped his hands over his ears, screwing up his face against the noise...

...and then everything went black.

Kaze_Night:

Riley looked inside at the school. She knows it was after 3:00 and she needed to get home soon. "My grade depends on finishing this science project," she said.

With a few minutes left she finished her project on time. Riley sighed in great relief. It's time to go home, she thought. She then heard her cell phone ring. She took it out and answered it before she saw a blinding flash of light and she disappered from sight.

Thunder_Song:

Hatsue looked around bored in her class not that she cared about anything else in that whole entire time. She was glad when she left the school after her final class to her place in the streets. A fight is what I need for money, she thought, running into a boy who dropped his cell phone. Even though she was on probation for her last assult, it was Hatsue's guilty pleasure to fight someone and not think twice. The boy didn't think twice about running from her, absolutely forgetting about the cell phone.

"Baka," she said, picking up the call phone. "I wonder what this does... Oh Forget it."

She continued walking until it went haywired on her. Hatsue threw it on the wall and disappeared into the light not knowing where it went.

Purple Lightning:

Kouichi walked in the house from another day of band practice with his friends. He hoped that they get a record label soon because as much as he hated to admit it, he needs the money to help out his aunt and six siblings. He noticed something on his feet.

"I think it was my okaakun and my okachan's toy," he said.

He didn't notice the light popping out and sucking him.

Malathyne:

Akemi Yakawashi furrowed her brow, thinking hard. Sabrise snuck a glance at her, then snickered.

"Having trouble?" she teased. "I mean, I know thinking is difficult, but..."

Akemi waved a hand absent-mindedly at her sister, signaling her to be quiet. "Shh!"

The black-haired girl raised her eyebrows, put down her pencil, and leaned over. The twins were doing their homework, Sabrise working on stupid social studies and science and Akemi had...

"Math?"

"Sabby," Akemi whined suddenly, turning to face her, "you made me lose my place!"

"What were you doing?"

"Mental math."

"...you know, you could just write your work in the margins..."

Sabrise received a blank stare. "Mar-jins?"

"You know," Sabrise rolled her eyes, exasperated, "the extra space along the sides?"

Pause.

"...oh."

Sabrise sweatdropped and returned to her own homework, flipping a braid over her shoulder. Akemi scribbled along the sides of her paper, and silence reigned between the two for a short while.

"I'm hungry," Akemi declared suddenly, snapping her pencil down on the table.

"Me, too..." Sabrise looked at Akemi through the corner of her eye. "Wanna head down to the cafeteria and get a snack?"

"Yay!" Akemi threw her hands in the air.

Sabrise's gaze turned odd. Regardless, Akemi reached across the coffee table and snagged the small glass jar that held a few yen for cases such as this.

"C'mon, let's go!" she beamed, hopping to her feet.

Shaking her head at her twin's happy-go-lucky attitude (which she had adjusted to long ago), Sabrise followed suit and lead the way out of the door.

~

"Hmm, what sounds good, what sounds good," Akemi mused, tapping a finger against her lips.

Sabrise rolled her eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time that day, grabbing a bag of chips. "I'm gonna go ahead and pay. Here." She handed over the money she wouldn't need. "See you back in the apartment, 'kay?"

"Oh-kay!" Akemi nodded enthusiastically, and Sabrise sweatdropped for what also felt like the umpteenth time that day and made her way to the cash register.

Akemi stood in front of the snack display for at least five minutes, pondering over what she wanted. Something sugary sounded nice, but then Sabrise would get all mad when she got all hyper and stuff... But she didn't want salty chips, she wanted something sweet. Well, Sabby would be mad if I took forever to pick, she decided, so something sugary it was.

But what would she pick? There were pies and cakes and cookies and chocolate bars and pocky and --

-- OOOHH, POCKY. Akemi's eyes lit up. She loved loved LOVED pocky! It was so mmm and yummy and mmmm... pocky.

But what kind to choose? There were chocolate, and strawberry, and chocolate-banana, and chocolate-strawberry, and caramel, and... Akemi's eyes glazed over. Whipped cream pocky... her favorite.

She leapt at the display (nearly knocking it over), yoinked up a box of oh-so-yummylicious whipped cream pocky, and bounced on over to the cash register (nearly tripping over her own two feet in the process).

"Hello, Akemi!" laughed the lady at the register, a nice person named Yoshiko Orima. "How are you today?"

"Amende juste, merci. Et toi?" Akemi returned politely.

Orima blinked. "Huh?"

Akemi blinked as well, and realized what happened. Blushing, she exclaimed, "Oh, I'm sorry! Okaa-chan is teaching me French, and I sometimes just blurt it out instinctively, and -- "

"It's all right." Orima shook her head, smiling. She felt both sorry for and jealous of Hiro and Haruko; they had such a sweet girl, but her energy had to be quite the handful. "Here, let me get that for you... pocky, right? Mmkay..."

She began to rang the snack up, but frowned.

Akemi tilted her head to the side curiously, and Orima could have sworn cat ears sprung up from her head. "What's wrong?" she asked childishly.

"The register's acting up," Orima explained. "I'm sorry... Can you wait here for a moment? I need to go get someone who knows how to fix it."

"Okay," Akemi smiled. "I can wait!"

With an apologetic bow of the head, Orima headed off.

Akemi bounced on her heels, patiently humming a tune to herself. It didn't matter now if it took a while; just as long as she could have her pocky at the end. If Sabby was upset, then she could just explain that the register was acting up and --

-- the register clicked, whirred, and beeped.

Akemi blinked. "Nani?"

The register beeped twice, and a series of zeros and ones sped across the charge screen. Akemi watched, amazed, as something filtered out of the receipt machine. It looked almost like a hologram from those sci-fi movies Otou-chan liked to watch, flat and flickering. It had a squarish shape, looking almost like a gold stopwatch, with its square screen and three buttons. Akemi once again tilted her head to the side a bit curiously, and reached out to touch it to see if her hand would go right through.

It didn't. Her fingers came in contact with something solid -- and the whatever became solid, and gravity took its hold. Akemi managed to catch it before it hit the register, and pulled it close, tucking her pocky box underneath an arm. She stared at it, as if waiting for something to happen.

It did.

The numbers on the register flashed, the machine itself whirred loudly, and the screen of the whatever began to glow with a golden light. Akemi gasped and almost dropped the thing, but it felt as if someone had locked her in a block of granite. She felt the floor drop out from underneath her, and she resisted the scream frozen in her throat as she fell down, down, down...

Darkness took her, and the last thing she remembered was a warm voice echoing all around her...

"Remember... The greatest weapon you bear is your heart."

JP:

He wanted to say something at the very moment he disappeared. Something like, "Let's get out of here." Or, "Thibault, this isn't such a good idea." Or perhaps even, "You guys are all idiots. Steal your own television." Daan Vandroogebroeck would have liked to do anything to make sure that he didn't get caught in the process of snatching a television from another man's house. He hadn't counted on disappearing.

It was midnight, or a bit past it, when he, Daan Daalmans, Thibault Dubois, and Stef Janssens gathered on a deserted streetcorner in Brussels. Stef quickly chose a house--he had an uncanny ability to guess which would be easily broken into--and Thibault had the honour of slipping through a window, unlocking a door, and letting in the other three.

Daan didn't like this plan at all. He stood, fretting, with his dark hair shading his eyes from view. With his friends, he'd done dangerous stuff before, but it'd never been anything so dangerous as this. They'd snuck into houses, but they didn't take big things. Just packs of cigarettes and little things--and sometimes, they'd just gotten into houses for the fun of it.

The moment they gathered around their prized object--a television for Stef's room, where they generally gathered--Daan heard a creaking noise upstairs. Suddenly, he knew that he wanted to get out of there any way he could, and even though all three of his friends would kill him for his next move, he hit the power on the television.

"You idiot!" Daan Daalmans yelled, forgetting that they really should have been hightailing it out of there just then.

Upstairs, a man's voice boomed out, "What's going on down there?"

The television glowed so brilliantly white that Daan had to rest a hand against the screen to steady himself. Suddenly, in his hand was...well, something. Daan wasn't good with gadgets; he had no idea what it was, based off of touch alone. As he lifted it closer to his face, in hopes of seeing what exactly it was, he lost his balance totally and expected to fall clumsily against the television.

When his fall should have ended, when whoever lived in that house should have come down screaming for the police, and when Daan Daalmans should have at least punched his best friend for spoiling the plan, nothing happened. Daan continued falling, still blinded by the brilliant white light and clutching for dear life to whatever it was he was holding onto.

Rummy:

Nykiana lounged in her desk, flipping through songs on her MP3 player and scribbling some notes the teacher wrote on the board. She sighed and glanced at the clock... It read 2:55. Five more minutes before she could go home. She grinned and started to quietly pack her things, trying not to catch the attention of her teacher. The bell rang and she was the first out her seat, she dashed out of the class before anyone even started packing.

She clipped her MP3 player to her belt and ran outside, jumping on her bike and skidding out of the parking lot. She peddled fast, Rammstein blaring in her ears as the wind zoomed fast. None of her friends cared for the band...and not many Germans liked them either...but she liked their beat.

She reached home in 15 minutes and hopped off her bike, leaving is laying in the middle of the driveway. She entered the house, tossed her backpack into the hall closet and jumped over the sofa and sat down. She flipped on her TV and switched her X-Box to ‘on’. She logged into her account...and then went online. She was almost late for her game with the guys.

‘Welcome ‘PrivateDarko’. You have 2 messages.’

She grinned and searched her friends list...

Just in time...She joined the game with her friends, ready and willing to play. All the sudden the screen went black. She groaned.

“Not again...stupid X-Box...” Just as she was about to restart her X-Box Live connection, something blipped on the screen in the corner of her eye. She looked up to face a blank screen.

“That’s odd. I wonder what that was all about.” She shrugged and reached down. As she did, the blip came back...and grew bigger. Next thing Nyki knew, she was hit with something hard and colorful (on the head, I might add) and blacked out...

To be continued...